About

Established in 1901, The Chapin School is a K-12 independent day school for girls that is dedicated to the intellectual and personal growth of its students as it prepares them to thrive and lead in a global society.Learn More

Academics

Here you will learn more about Chapin's rigorous liberal arts program which prepares students for further academic study and encourages the development of curiosity, creativity and integrity. Learn More

Athletics

Chapin is committed to fostering a sound athletic program as an integral part of the total educational experience. Our teams nurture the development of good sportsmanship, moral integrity and athletic excellence.Learn More

In This Section

Dates List

From the earliest years of the school until the early 1970s Chapin students were required to learn this list of dates. Alumnae often enjoy revisiting them. Today, while students no longer memorize the Dates List, dates of significant events are always identified and reinforced in classes.

B.C.

c.3000 Pyramid Age began First Calendar in Egyptc.1720 Hammurabi’s Code of Laws in Babylonc.1600 Golden Age of Cretan Civilization1000 David, King of the Hebrewsc.800 Homer and the Iliadc.776 The First Olympiad753 Rome founded621 The Deuteronomic Code of the Hebrews612 Nineveh destroyed by Medes and Chaldeans586 Fall of Jerusalemc.563 Birth of Buddha551 Birth of Confucius550 Croesus, King of Lydia510 Expulsion of Kings from Rome, Establishment of Roman Republic490 Battle of Marathon480 Battles of Thermopolae and Salamisc.445 Periclean Age404 End of the Peloponnesian Wars399 Death of Socrates218 Hannibal crossed the Alps55 Caesar invaded Britain31 Battle of Actium27 Augustan Age, Beginning of Roman Empire

A.D.

70 Siege of Jerusalem by Titus79 Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum180 Death of Marcus Aurelius, End of Pax Romana325 First Council of Nicaea378 Battle of Adrianople410 Alaric, the Goth, took Rome440 Pope Leo I, the Great450 Conquest of Britain by Angles and Saxons451 Battle of Châlons476 Fall of the Roman Empire in the West496 Conversion of Clovis to Orthodox Christianity526 St. Benedict’s Rule597 St. Augustine sent to England by Pope Gregory I, the Great622 The Hegira664 Synod of Whitby-brought Church of England under supervision of Church of Rome732 Battle of Tours752 Pippin crowned King of the Franks by St. Boniface800 Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III899 Death of Alfred the Great962 Otto I crowned Holy Roman Emperor987 Hugh Capet in France1066 Norman Conquest of England1077 Henry IV submitted to Gregory VII at Canossa1096 First Crusade, Pope Urban II1188 Third Crusade, Richard I of England, Philip II of France, Frederick I of Germany, Yorimoto, First Shogun of Japan1210 St. Frances and Innocent III1215 Magna Carta1250 Death of Frederick II1280 Kublai Khan, Mongol ruler of China, Marco Polo1295 Model Parliament under Edward I1300 Dante’s Divine Comedy1302 Commons or Third Estate called to Estates General by Philip IV of France1337 Death of Giotto1346 Battle of Crecy at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War1377 End of the Babylonian, Captivity of the Church, Beginning of the Great Schism1381 John Wyclif, Peasants’ Revolt in England1414 Council of Constance1415 Burning of John Huss, Battle of Agincourt1431 Burning of Joan of Arc1453 End of the Hundred Years’ War, Constantinople taken by the Turks, Fall of the Eastern Empire1456 Bible printed at Mainz by John Gutenberg1492 Columbus discovered the New World, Moors expelled from Spain, Death of Lorenzo de' Medici1497 John Cabot claimed North America for England1519 Emperor Charles V, Henry VIII, Francis I, Pope Leo X, Death of Leonardo da Vinci, Beginning of Magellan’s voyage1521 Edict of Worms outlawed Luther1538 Order of Jesuits established by Ignatius Loyola1543 Copernicus published his theory of solar system1564 Death of Michelangelo1568 Rebellion of The Netherlands against Philip II of Spain led by William the Silent of Orange1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day1588 Spanish Armada, Elizabeth of England, Philip of Spain1598 Edict of Nantes issued by Henry IV of France1607 Settlement of Jamestown1614 First settlement on Manhattan1616 Death of Shakespeare1642 Civil War in England, Death of Galileo , Birth of Sir Isaac Newton1644 Antonio Stradivari born: perfected the violin1648 Treaty of Westphalia at the end of the Thirty Years’ War about Religion1649 Execution of Charles I1685 Johann Sebastian Bach born: polyphonic writing Edict of Nantes revoked by Louis XIV1687 Newton formulated the laws of gravitation1688 Glorious Revolution in England: James II, William III and Mary1713 Treaty of Utrecht at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession1748 End of the War of the Austrian Succession between Frederick the Great of Prussia and Maria Theresa of Austria1769 James Watt patented the steam engine1770 Ludwig van Beethoven born, sonata and symphonic forms1776 Declaration of American Independence1777 Battle of Saratoga1787 United States Constitution1789 French Revolution, Washington first President of the United States1804 Napoleon, Emperor of France1806 Holy Roman Empire dissolved1807 Robert Fulton’s steamboat in the United States1813 Richard Wagner born1815 Battle of Waterloo1822 Louis Pasteur born1825 Locomotive invented by George Stephenson in England1831 Michael Faraday discovered principal for electric generator1848 European revolutions Second French Republic, End of war between United States and Mexico , Karl Marx – Communist Manifesto1852 Second French Empire: Napoleon III1853 Beginning of Crimean War1859 Charles Darwin – The Origin of Species1861 Alexander II freed the serfs in Russia, Kingdom of Italy founded by Victor Emmanuel1861-65 Civil War in the United States1870 Franco-Prussian War, Third Republic in France, End of Temporal Power of the Pope1871 German Empire united under William I of Prussia by Bismarck1898 Spanish-American War1899 Beginning of Boer War1901 Marconi-first wireless message across the Atlantic1903 Wright brothers flew in heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina1905 Einstein announced his Theory of Relativity, End of Russo-Japanese War1909 Discovery of the North Pole by Peary1911 Discovery of the South Pole by Amundsen1912 Republic of China1914 Beginning of World War I, Battle of the Marne1917 The United States declared war against Germany, Fall of the Russian Empire and establishment of the Soviet State1918 Armistice signed, Fall of the German and Austrian Empires1919 League of Nations established1927 Lindbergh’s nonstop solo flight to France1929 Stock market panic on Wall Street, Vatican City established as a sovereign state by Pope Pius XI and Mussolini1931 Japan took Manchuria1935 Italy attacked Ethiopia1937 Japan invaded China1939 World War II began with Hitler’s attack on Poland1940 Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor1942 First nuclear-controlled chain reaction- University of Chicago1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, End of World War II, United Nations Charter drawn up at San FranciscoSince 1945 Decline of overseas empires and formation of indepedent nations in Africa and Asia1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Communists control China mainland, Chiang Kaishek at Taiwan1950 Korean War started1953 Mount Everest climbed by British expedition1954 United States Supreme Court decision against school segretation1957 Russian sputnik in orbit1957-58 International Geophysical Year1969 Americans landed on the moon